Month: August 2020

It’s easy to criticize one another. It’s really difficult to find ways to connect with people who think differently from the way that you do.

The things we use to separate ourselves from one another are things that we have come up with. God did not make one person different from another.

We may have different languages, different accents, different colors of skin. We may have different social customs. We may eat different food. We still are ultimately the same.

We are humans and we were created by God for a special purpose. Every single one of us is special. Everyone of us is unique to God. One is not better than the other.

While we are unique to God, we are loved the same. It doesn’t matter about any of our physical differences, he loves us.

We need to stop looking for the differences and concentrate on what is the same. We are all children of God.

Some people don’t know God. Some deny him. Some follow false gods. The Lord God of heaven is the only true God. He is the one that created us and the one that we will answer to on Judgement Day.

We all are in the same boat. We are all sinners and we have no way to redeem ourselves. There is only one way to become acceptable to our Father. There is only one way that our filthy deeds can be washed clean and we can come into the presence of the Lord.

Jesus died and shed blood as a sacrifice. His sinless blood is what can wash our sins away. All we have to do is acknowledge he is God, ask him to save us, to help us to follow after him. We need to repent of our sins and turn our lives around.

He is right there waiting and wants to know you. He wants you to be saved for all eternity. It is up to you. Turn away from the sin of judging others, look at the other sins in your life and know that you have been wrong.

Look to his life and teachings and know that he gave us the example of how life should be lived. While we can never be without sin in this lifetime, we are to strive to do better and better. We are to learn from our mistakes and start over with the help of our Father God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

Matthew 7:1-5

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about all the years that I wasn’t following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I was a Christian but I wasn’t living the life that he had called me to live.

I was going my own way and that means that I was following the path of another leader. Looking back, I can see all the times that I strayed and all the catastrophes that came about because of it.

It was all due to my willful tendencies. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be accountable to anyone but me. I was behaving as if I had never met the Savior and accepted his gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

Each time, I was pulled back from the brink and turned my life back to his way. I am ever grateful for his being faithful when I was not.

The thing that I had never contemplated before was what the effect of my sin had on other people. How many individuals were put in my path that I could have and should have told about the saving power of believing in Jesus Christ.

It may be that I was the only person who would ever talk to them and I blew it. That’s something that I will have to live with. I have turned over the shame and guilt to Jesus but it makes me ever more certain that I should not miss the opportunities he provides to me in the future.

Time is short, whether it is the end of times or whether it is because life is uncertain and one never knows when their end will come.

All I know is that Jesus loves every single one of us the same and he wants to have a relationship with us.

If you are a Christian and haven’t been spending time with those whom you know and/or love telling them about your experience, think again. Jesus gave us the important task of spreading the news of his sacrifice and love.

We are called to tell others about him. If you are not, then you are truly not following in his footsteps. He was willing to die to have people saved. Is it too much to ask that you put yourself on the line and talk to others? I don’t think so.

Find the right time and God will make the conversation easy. Be respectful of others and let them say whether they are interested or not. No one can force another to believe what they believe. All you can do is share what Jesus has done for you.

God will do the rest.

Matthew 28:16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted [that it was really He].

Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”

We are rebellious. We never stop trying to get around the rules. We want to get to where we want, with what we want with us. This is how we are taught to get ahead.

Everyone wants to be the best at what they do, no matter how humble they may want to appear. They may even want to be the most humble person alive.

It is that need to be top dog that is our undoing. We look at ourselves and see the world revolving around us. To each of us, we are the center of the universe.

You may want to put someone else before you, on occasion. But look at your motives for doing so. Is it because you want to look good to everyone else or are you really placing others ahead of yourself?

If the latter, that is unusual. That is how we are supposed to live but it doesn’t come naturally. It is something that we have to work at.

Jesus put everyone ahead of himself and it wasn’t work. It wasn’t unnatural for him. He truly loved others more than himself.

He loved us so much, he died to pay for the price of each of our sins. Would you be willing to do that for others?

Maybe for some but certainly not for others. Think of the most despicable people you can, and then, ask yourself if you would give your life to save them?

What if they were responsible for killing many people? Think of the despots that killed millions. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Lenin, and Castro are a few names that come quickly to mind. Keep in mind those are just a few of the mass killers of modern times. There were many others throughout history. They killed so many people with just a wave of their hand, a signed order or a simply spoken word.

Would you die to save even one of those people? Jesus died to save them all. All they had to do was accept his forgiveness, his salvation and his promise of eternal life in heaven. Even after all the death and destruction they wrought. He still loved them.

I find it hard, sometimes, to find something lovable about many people. I can’t wrap my head around the evil they embrace. When I see them hurting others, it makes me want to retaliate. I can stand the pain myself, but hurting someone helpless is what I cannot stand, let alone express love for those who are causing the pain.

Jesus wants us to learn to love as he did. He knows it is hard and that we will fail over and over. We can reach out to him and ask him to give us the love that he feels when we cannot find it on our own.

He will answer that prayer. He will fill us with love, he can show us what he saw in that person that was worth giving his life to save.

If you are disgusted, disappointed or hateful towards some one or some group of people, reach out to Jesus and ask him to turn your heart around. At the same time, start praying for that person or people.

Who knows? It may be the first time anyone has brought their name before God in prayer. You may be the individual whose prayer God answers.

Matthew 5: 43-46

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

It’s easy to say that you are a Christian when you are around other Christians. Taking a stand for Christ amongst non-believers is a completely different thing.

In the past, it wasn’t all that difficult but, over time, it has become increasingly hard to state Christian beliefs.

At least, that is what many Christians believe. The truth is, it isn’t any more difficult; however, the fallout of stating that you have given your life to Jesus has increased.

Society, in general, either mocks Christians or thinks they are crazy or dangerous. Very few people are ambivalent. They are either for Jesus or against him.

That isn’t surprising. That is what Jesus warned us to expect. He didn’t come to heal relationships but to divide them. He didn’t want us to compromise with non-believers. He wanted us to take a stand no matter what the cost.

He told us that families would be split apart over belief in his saving power. He knew that would happen even before he went to the cross to save us.

God has put it even more plainly. You serve either god or you serve Satan. There is no gray area. There is no in between stand to take.

When you accept Jesus and all that he has for you, it may come at the cost of broken relationships. It may cause other people to walk away and shake their heads in disgust or dismay.

Still, what happens in this lifetime is simply a passing of a second in the time of eternity. Would having an easy life here on earth make up for an eternity in hell?

I don’t think so. I can face whatever this life has and look forward to heaven with my father, God and Jesus, my savior.

For those who compromise, Jesus will look at them on Judgement day and say “I never knew you”. That is because, truly, they will never have actually accepted the truth of what Jesus came to do.

I’ve been looking at a “translation” of the Bible which is not a translation at all. It is one man’s compromise of the Word of God to make money and gain acceptance.

The Passion Translation is not a translation. These set of books (masquerading as the Bible) are what this man has written. He says that Jesus took him to heaven and “downloaded” the translation into his brain. He also says that Jesus gave him the ability to translate originals texts in languages he doesn’t even know.

Even more disturbing, he says that Jesus will take him to heaven again someday soon and give him a new chapter to John. He is the one individual involved in this and he is reaping money hand over fist. He is an apostate and he is swaying people to things that are not true.

No matter how poetic and moving this TPT is, flee from it, Christians. It is not from God, therefore it is from Satan.

Take your stand on the Word of God. Other translations have many Biblical scholars and thousands of man-hours invested in them. They are peer written and peer reviewed. They can’t sneak their false doctrine into something that so many others are involved in.

If you know someone who thinks this is a good translation, set them straight. Let them know that it is a compromise and that it isn’t Christian. Let them know where you stand.

Stand for Christ and his true words, even if they are divisive to some. Just because non-believers are offended, it doesn’t make truth less true. Better you should lose some relationships, keep your spirit safe and, perhaps, point others away from a path that will lead them to hell.

Mark 8:34-38

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”